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Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare branding and communications expert with more than 25 years of industry experience. and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also worked extensively healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. She can be reached at @ziegerhealth or www.ziegerhealthcare.com.

Not long ago, the chair of neurology at the sprawling Henry Ford Hospital decided it was time to bring his idea to life. Dr. Stephan Mayer, who had previously created a data analytics system at New York Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, felt he could bring what he learned to Henry Ford Hospital — and that it could save lives.

According to a story in Crain’s Detroit Business, Mayer was convinced that if the hospital analyzed data generated by patient monitors, it could reduce mortality and complications by predicting negative patient events.

“This is all about lost opportunity and making the most of the data we have,” Mayer told Crain’s. “There is nothing unique about the data we have. We have EMRs connected to pharmacy, radiology, billing, this and that, but there is a doughnut hole. The empty spot is the ICU, where the sickest of the people are.”

Acting on that belief, Mayer put together an initiative bringing such tools to the health system’s neuro ICU.

After searching for a partner that could make this happen, Mayer settled on Medical Informatics Corp.’s FDA-cleared clinical intelligence platform, Sickbay, which monitors real-time vital signs issued by any connected device. The Sickbay product also comes with related apps such as Multimon, which allows clinicians to view multiple patients remotely across units, the hospital or multiple facilities.

Once deployed, Sickbay collects patient monitor data, stores and organizes it in a manner making it easier for clinicians to predict future patient events. For example, it can produce data on patient alarms that fall within specified critical ranges. This allows clinicians to see and act on patterns more quickly, Mayer said.

Working with Henry Ford’s IT Department, Mayer is rolling out Sickbay. Starting in June, Henry Ford will launch Sickbay and begin storing patient data. Over the next six months, the neuro ICU should collect data on 600 patients. Hopefully, this data will offer clinicians the insight and context they need to help patients.

If Mayer gets the results he’s hoping for, this could be just the first in a series of rollouts, potentially across the 22 ICUs operating across the five-hospital system. “Our organization is eager to push boundaries,” he told the magazine. “What we are doing, if it works as planned…it will change the way we round in the ICU.”

This sounds great, but Mayer is still lucky he’s at Henry Ford rather than other less-entrepreneurial organizations. The health system has worked to promote technology innovation for many years. Its efforts include an innovations program rewarding employees for standout inventions in areas like clinical applications for wearable technology.